Stumbled across this when clearing out some old Autosport magazines (from an 'anniversary' edition) - a quote from Bruce McLaren's Autosport column, May 1964, on Timmy Mayer's death at Longford:

To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. I can’t say these thing well, but I know this is what I feel to be true. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability; life is measured in terms of achievement, not in years alone.

Additional to Ellis' DB4 Zagato info from the 1962 programmes, below is as written in the 'About the drivers' section of the Saturday March 3rd, 1962 programme - there's entries for the car in the first 2 races that day.
Event 1 - 'International Canners Gran Turismo Cars Scratch Race' 5 lapper at 10.55am.
Event 2 - 'Australian Titan Products Sports Cars over 1500cc Scratch Race' 6 lapper at 11.27am

"Doug Whiteford - ... At the current meeting he will drive the new Zagato Aston Martin DB4GT belonging to Laurie O'Niell at its Australian debut. This superb car, capable of accelerating from standstill to 100mph and then disc braking to a stop within the total space of a little more than 20 seconds, recently was imported by Mr O'Niell, a wealthy Sydney businessman and sportsman who last year acquired a property in the Bridport district. To whom but such a perfectionist as Doug Whiteford would one lend one's new Zagato for racing."

As far as I recall, Laurie O'Niell was Peterbuilt trucks in Australia. At the 1961 Longford meeting David McKay ran the O'Niell owned Ferrari 250GT that adorns the cover of the March 24th, 1961 issue of Autosport. The photo is of McKay leading Leo Geoghegan's Lotus Elite and Gavin Youl's Porsche 356 across the Long Bridge.

Originally posted by cooper997Fantastic Ron Lambert photos of the Zagato DB4GT.....

.....As far as I recall, Laurie O'Niell was Peterbuilt trucks in Australia. At the 1961 Longford meeting David McKay ran the O'Niell owned Ferrari 250GT that adorns the cover of the March 24th, 1961 issue of Autosport. The photo is of McKay leading Leo Geoghegan's Lotus Elite and Gavin Youl's Porsche 356 across the Long Bridge.

Interesting stuff, Stephen...

Laurie O'Neill's fortune came originally, as I understand it (from Frank Matich when under his wing) from quarrying. The Peterbilt business was a sideline, possibly because they bought a number of their trucks for the quarrying operation.

An obituary is not a biography, designed to paint the definitive picture of a man, with his faults evaluated equally with his virtues. The convention of such tributes often tends to invest those who have gone with a sort of aura of unalloyed goodness which is at odds with all human experience; and hence obituaries must be read for what they omit as much as for what they include.

He went on to say that this was not so of Glynn Scott... I previously posted this at the time of David McKay's death.

Laurie O'Neill's fortune came originally, as I understand it (from Frank Matich when under his wing) from quarrying. The Peterbilt business was a sideline, possibly because they bought a number of their trucks for the quarrying operation.

Ray,

I wasn't aware of the quarrying, but it makes sense. Infact it would be interesting to learn more from TNFers on the life of Laurie O'Niell. He seemed to help quite a few drivers of the 1960's through to say mid-70's. Given he helped pay the bills for cars built as late as the Craven Mild Geoghegan Monaro sport sedan.

He certainly had the means to buy some great cars over the years, at the very least.

I wasn't aware of the quarrying, but it makes sense. Infact it would be interesting to learn more from TNFers on the life of Laurie O'Niell. He seemed to help quite a few drivers of the 1960's through to say mid-70's. Given he helped pay the bills for cars built as late as the Craven Mild Geoghegan Monaro sport sedan.

He certainly had the means to buy some great cars over the years, at the very least.

Stephen

Not to mention Laurex, the O'Neill waste collection & disposal interests in both Sydney & Brisbane plus an aborted attempt to establish in the US. Sold the business for big bucks at the end of the 70s.

As far as I recall, Laurie O'Niell was Peterbuilt trucks in Australia. At the 1961 Longford meeting David McKay ran the O'Niell owned Ferrari 250GT that adorns the cover of the March 24th, 1961 issue of Autosport. The photo is of McKay leading Leo Geoghegan's Lotus Elite and Gavin Youl's Porsche 356 across the Long Bridge.

Stephen

Thanks Stephen!! I remember Dad giving up on trying to put the camera back together that those shots would have been taken with - some sort of German ? SLR - it would have been prior to his Olympus phase!!!

He went from photographing Laurie's cars to assisting in the building of one for him at Elfins not to long after taking those shots!! Another driver from those days, Noel Hurd is still referring to him as "young Ron" these days. Noel has ended up with the belt drive lathe from Elfins that Ron machined wheels on.

There's a trucking magazine on the pontoon of this car - it may well be an O'Neill/Matich machine.

Originally posted by SJ Lambert.....He went from photographing Laurie's cars to assisting in the building of one for him at Elfins not to long after taking those shots!! Another driver from those days, Noel Hurd is still referring to him as "young Ron" these days. Noel has ended up with the belt drive lathe from Elfins that Ron machined wheels on.

There's a trucking magazine on the pontoon of this car - it may well be an O'Neill/Matich machine.

There's a photo around somewhere, if you check all the deep recesses of this forum, taken by John Ellacott which shows the Matich Elfin Traco in Laurie O'Neill's truck yard at Alexandria or somewhere close by that area.

There's also a story Matich told me, again, way back in the sixties, about Laurie.

Seems his wife came from a fairly upper crust type of family and they awaited her new date's arrival when they first met him. To their horror, he turned up in overalls and driving a great tip truck... straight from delivering some blue metal somewhere.

They must have got over the shock, though, as the daughter did marry him.

I guess if the letters 'BM & G' are on the truck and you own the quarry it belongs to, then you might ultimately have some clout.

Not to mention Laurex, the O'Neill waste collection & disposal interests in both Sydney & Brisbane plus an aborted attempt to establish in the US. Sold the business for big bucks at the end of the 70s.

Hi everyone, A little update for anyone who is interested: my version of Longford has been released for four or five different racing games, and overall has been downloaded somewhere near 7000 times! I've no idea how many of those people would have heard of Longford before, but it's getting out there a bit.

yesterday i was trawling youtube and came across this video a Spanish guy named Jose Didot has made using '67 F1 cars and Longford in rFactor. It's a bit cinematic with an decent choice of soundtrack. Gave me a bit of a thrill. - Thanks Jose

By the way, I'm sure woochoo will be far too modest to mention it, but he made both the local TV News & the Front page of the local Papers today with stories on his re-creation of the Longford circuit. Showed footage & photos of him in a racing simulator going round the track. Fantastic to see him get some coverage in the local media & getting some recognition of the amazing amount of work he's put into this while also trying to do Uni degree !

As well as this coverage local Commercial TV did a segment also.The Examiner Newspaper covered the launch and ABC Radio interviewed Shannon and James his Uni Tutor earlier in the day.

Well done Woochoo and it was breathtaking and realistic to see it on 3 big wrap around rear proj screens.I took an ex Longford race driver with me and he had trouble getting a Mustang out of the pits without doing susbstantial damage but Woochoo handled F1 cars at 180 mph down the Flying Mile and under the Viaduct with ease. He can get a Mustang off Long Bridge flat strap but has to back the Open Wheelers off a bit...lol....more practice needed.Wait till you get a Humpy Holden on the track or Geoff Duke on a Gillera and we will come back and challenge you...no practising tho.

Thanks Mal,It was a big day. Thanks for coming along Ellis.There is an ABC radio interview here too. Early morning start. My first interview ever. By the end of the day my total was up to two or three.http://www.abc.net.a...m?site=northtas

Wait till you get a Humpy Holden on the track or Geoff Duke on a Gillera and we will come back and challenge you...no practising tho.

About that;you, or anyone else, wouldn't happen to have blueprints for an FX or FJ by any chance? Even just diagrams from, say, a plastic kit model or something? I've never made a 3D car before, but if i were to try, an old Holden might be a good place to start. No one has made one for any racing games so far as i know, and it would compliment Longford... Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any blueprints on the internet.

Just putting it out there as a possibility. The likely hood of the proposed project getting any further than this depends almost entirely on getting front & side isometric drawings.

And thanks Ellrosso. There are plans for a website to help any non-gamers get up and running if they've decided they'd like to drive the circuit. Once that's ready there will certainly be a credits list and you and your site will certainly get a mention. The recreation wouldn't be anything like it is without those photos!

About that;you, or anyone else, wouldn't happen to have blueprints for an FX or FJ by any chance? Even just diagrams from, say, a plastic kit model or something? I've never made a 3D car before, but if i were to try, an old Holden might be a good place to start. No one has made one for any racing games so far as i know, and it would compliment Longford... Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any blueprints on the internet.

Just putting it out there as a possibility. The likely hood of the proposed project getting any further than this depends almost entirely on getting front & side isometric drawings.

And thanks Ellrosso. There are plans for a website to help any non-gamers get up and running if they've decided they'd like to drive the circuit. Once that's ready there will certainly be a credits list and you and your site will certainly get a mention. The recreation wouldn't be anything like it is without those photos!

Thanks Doug, if you're impressed, I'm happy.
Thanks ellrosso, i've make a box the same lenght as the wheel base. A good start! I'll put in some time this arvo and see if i can get it looking like a car.

I think only Laurie O'Neill ever imported one of those to Australia...

On the same trip that he bought the Dan Gurney Impala he bought a DB4GTZ, it was raced by a couple of drivers (Ian Geoghegan was the only one I saw, Warwick Farm, but there was another somewhere) and Laurie ran it at least at Silverdale Hillclimb himself.

He kept it when he sold the Chev, which now belongs to Ian Taylor and he wrangles with the Yanks about its true identity.

Presumably these pics are from '62 or '63 Longford, anyone got a program?

I remember that Aston, and Ian Geoghehan driving it.Just stumbled on this thread, not been looking at this stuff for ages. I remember walking Longford a number of times, and the simulation brings back so much. What I really need is a recording of Amon in the P4 near the end of the straight. That noise was something else again, marvelous

Just in case followers of this thread aren't aware, the Australian motor racing photos 1950s to 70s thread has a some brilliant & detailed Longford photos currently appearing on it. Courtesy of ellrosso - refer page 107 to 109 as I type this.

I remember that Aston, and Ian Geoghehan driving it.Just stumbled on this thread, not been looking at this stuff for ages. I remember walking Longford a number of times, and the simulation brings back so much. What I really need is a recording of Amon in the P4 near the end the of the straight. That noise was something else again, marvelous

How did the short stroke DFVs, that is DFWs ?, compare sound wise, to the standard stroke engines in the Lotus 49s? Any noticeable difference?

Hi everyone, i may have mentioned that i was thinking of making an FX for rFactor. I'm not sure i've got the modeling skills to do that at this stage, and i've been working on updating Longford. As a part of updating Longford i've decided i need some spectator cars, and from pictures it seems FXs and FJs were pretty popular, so, while not as detailed as a drivable car would be, i've started a low-resolution model to put in the paddocks. Thanks Ellis and ellrosso for the drawings.This is the most detailed car i've ever modeled... It might even be TOO detailed for it's purpose as a bit of scenery, but oh well.I've also got plans for an EH, Falcon ute, Mini, Cortina, Viva and a Beetle. Perhaps a Combie too. These will come in a few different colours so hopefully there will be enough variety.

A few hanging about in the paddock with race numbers on wouldn't hurt either.

Perfect idea David! I'll have a look through my collection of photos and see if i can get some authentic colour/number combinations. And, ya know, from photos i'll probably be able to put a few of them in exactly the right spot too.It turns out that with some decent drawings and low expections, low polygon car models don't take too long to make. Not perfect, and ofcourse they are still just blank models so far, but here is another. to save you from having to guess, it's a mini

I've found a beetle for texture use, so i've actually managed to complete some spectator cars now, and a couple of race beetles, based on the Longford events. I'm not sure who any of the drivers would have been though. And the models are fairly low quality, for performance reasons, so i'm sorry if they hurt your eyes Also, you might notice the Formula Vee cars, decked out in Tasman Series and pre-Tasman inspired liveries that i've made (only the liveries) based on Longford photos and videos.click for a bigger pic of this VW love-festgoodnight

Since the Longford Revival Festival is on next weekend, April 1,2,3, I thought i'd just post a link to their programme page where you can see a list of cars that will be running. http://www.longfordr..._programme.html

My track will be there too, hooked up to two Shannon's Insurance motion-base sim rigs, running the sim for free ($0.00 each turn). I think the format will be a warm-up lap and a race lap, in an 60's style Formula Vee, as seen in my last screenshot. 3:10 is a quickish, smooth lap so that will be around 7 or so minutes of game time on a moving cockpit rig for anyone who wants to give it a try.

I was in that exact spot last saturday getting some photo-textures of bushes and grass, down under the Viaduct and along to the river, it was hot and dry. I switched tv channels right after F1 quali finished today and saw about 1 second of footage which I'm pretty sure was the stretch between Tannery Corner and Long Bridge, with water coming half-way up the height of the wrapped hay bales that are lined up on the road. I say I'm pretty sure; there are other roads lined with Hawthorns and hay bales in the area I'm sure, but it looked like a well-zoomed shot from up by Newry Corner.

lets not try to scupper this one shall we lads.... The Longoford Revival deserves a chance.. Perhaps the grumpy old man society of TNF could get behind this one and give it a hand.

Woochoo, what a fabulous track youve made! As for Longofrd, even if you take away the racing history, its an amazing and beautiful place. I really don't think there is any intent to 'scupper' the Longford event but information on the proposal has not been easy to find and old friends that visited and participated in various ways at that circuit from both Australia and even New Zealand have been in contact to seek information on the event but unfortunately this has obviously never been readily available to these important people and I am aware of several that were interested won't now be attending which is rather a shame. I for one am looking forward to attending , hopefully meeting up with other veterans of all forms of the sport and chew the fat on memories of the real Longford which I think is about all that can be done today so leave this grumpy old man to protect his good memories of Longford from its inception through to its washout in '68.

Originally posted by Geoff SmedleyI really don't think there is any intent to 'scupper' the Longford event but information on the proposal has not been easy to find and old friends that visited and participated in various ways at that circuit from both Australia and even New Zealand have been in contact to seek information on the event but unfortunately this has obviously never been readily available to these important people.

I am aware of several that were interested won't now be attending which is rather a shame. I for one am looking forward to attending , hopefully meeting up with other veterans of all forms of the sport and chew the fat on memories of the real Longford which I think is about all that can be done today so leave this grumpy old man to protect his good memories of Longford from its inception through to its washout in '68.

I agree with both points, Geoff...

We all know floodwaters go down and normality returns quite quickly...

Since the Longford Revival Festival is on next weekend, April 1,2,3, I thought i'd just post a link to their programme page where you can see a list of cars that will be running. http://www.longfordr..._programme.html

My track will be there too, hooked up to two Shannon's Insurance motion-base sim rigs, running the sim for free ($0.00 each turn). I think the format will be a warm-up lap and a race lap, in an 60's style Formula Vee, as seen in my last screenshot. 3:10 is a quickish, smooth lap so that will be around 7 or so minutes of game time on a moving cockpit rig for anyone who wants to give it a try.

Maate, do you take bookings ! I'll be there on the Saturday, but I reckon your sim rigs might well be one of the most popular demos of the weekend !!

The Examiner Newspaper on Sunday had a free 12 page "Official Programme" inside.
It has photos of each of the (currently 75) Flying Mile entrants and other info of use to those attending.
Just need the paddocks to dry out by the weekend.
Some action is evident at the site.

If you dont want to know the weather forecast for Longford look away now......

The Examiner Newspaper on Sunday had a free 12 page "Official Programme" inside.It has photos of each of the (currently 75) Flying Mile entrants and other info of use to those attending.Just need the paddocks to dry out by the weekend.Some action is evident at the site.

If you dont want to know the weather forecast for Longford look away now......

Well at least that is a solid piece of information! I never thought of contacting bakery franchises, will pass that on.

My fairly obvious point was that advertising is out there.. thats a good thing, or perhaps I should call the organisers and tell them that TNF thinks popular eateries are not a good place to put flyers?